they were discovered in the java sea. 162 people on board. officials say at least six bodies have been recovered. they also say a large part of what is believed to be the plane s fuselage has been spotted in relatively shallow water. it s now nighttime in indonesia in the search is suspended. the plan is to send divers to the sea tomorrow. meantime family members of those on the plane were overcome as they learned of today s discoveries by watching a live local television broadcast of that search. tomorrow a chartered plane is taking family members over the search area so they can pray for their loved ones. joining me now katherine higgins. thank you very much for joining us. a question we re discussing earlier what do the discoveries including the bodies, you know, without life vests, the plane debris including an emergency exit door plus items from the
they re calling this a rescue effort. they haven t moved it over to recovery quite yet. they confirmed they found quite a few bodies today. they belong to air asia flight 8501. family members found out about this in the worst way possible. they were watching live television when bodies were shown floating in the water. they were given no warning for this. it we ares sbears repeating there were 162 people on board. 17 were kids. one was a baby. just a very tough circumstance all around. the family members will be given a charter flight tomorrow so they can fly around the belitung islands. it s the last known location of the plane. they re going to be given a chance to pray for their loved ones there. when the search effort resumes tomorrow divers will be going, weather permitting into an area where they saw a large shadow. they hope that s where the bulk of the wreckage is. they re hoping that s where the black boxes are. if they re able to recover it it will be taken back to
the world and across our country often. maybe also the turbulence. you can t see the turbulence. they have indicators of it. other planes threw the area. if it s a rapidly developing storm maybe they didn t know the turbulence. you could deal with lightning and icing on the wings. that s certain elevations with super cool drops of air. those are the possibilities of what they could have been dealing with. we won t know nshlofficially until we get the black box. for more let s try to bring in our newsnation experts john cox. a 30 year veteran with u.s. airways and safety board member katherine higgins. thank you for joining us. katherine, we re learning that the air asia plane was not fitted with a satellite
communication system. how could that have helped in the ongoing search effort? that i don t think it would have made any difference. it was deviating around weather and it was normal. they asked for a change in course and change in altitude. they made the course change and whatever occurred occurred very quickly and it took the preoccupation and the focus of the crew to deal with that situation so they did not make any contact with air traffic control after that. air traffic control watched the loss of the target and they were alerted very quickly. i m confident they ll find it quickly. katherine, let s ask you about this. are you surprised no pings have been detected. no emergency locater beacon discovered? i guess one question whether they deployed sonar that would
desperate search for the missing airasia jet line with 162 people on board. a top research and rescue official said the plane is likely, quote, at the bottom of the sea. it s about 11:00 p.m. there. the search is suspended for the night. 30 ships and 15 aircraft had joined in the search today. for the relatives of those on board it s being another agonizing day of waiting and hoping for a miracle. the airbus a 320 took off sunday from indonesia s second largest city head are if singapore. a two hour flight. 38 minutes into the flight the pilot asked to change course and climb higher. the course change was approved but 42 minutes into the flight contact was lost. no distress call was received. latest on the search in singapore. it is nighttime in singapore. the search has been called off for dakrkness. they ll resume tomorrow. there is rain expected in the area tomorrow and there is concern that rain might hamper the search effort. they are searching around the bell tong isl